Hayden Triggs wants to be be more dominant. On the rugby field that is. At home, he is very much playing second fiddle.
Triggs, who turns 27 later this month, is the proud father of 6-month old baby daughter, Adelaide, and has been adjusting to parenthood.
"You're learning something every day. You're finding out who you are as a man," Triggs said.
Triggs has had a busy past few months, playing rugby for Manawatu and then transferring south, along with partner Mikala, to a new life in Dunedin, after more than 10 years in Palmerston North.
"It was just a time for a change and get some new kind of motivation. A different kind of motivation from where I'd been for seven years. A change of scenery, I suppose."
Triggs is renting a house owned by former Highlanders and All Black lock James Ryan and says he has settled in well.
Now he wants to do the job on the paddock and take his game up a notch.
"There's no second-year blues. I felt I came on well last year, started most of the games and contributed to what the coaches asked me to do.
"But I want to become more of a dominant figure, do my job and set a platform."
He said pre-season was the usual slog and was a thankless task, but something players had to do.
"I love the travel and the actual playing of the games. Ask any player and it's the playing of the games which matters. But the pre-season is the worst thing. Just getting flogged.
"It doesn't matter how fit you are, you know you are going to get worked hard. Was it harder than last season ? I'd better not say no."
Triggs did his job well last year, playing 11 matches, and has been in impressive pre-season form.
He does not mind whether he plays lock or blindside flanker, and said the way he played as lock, getting around the paddock, was similar to a loose forward.
Triggs will lock the scrum with Josh Bekhuis tonight and said the side was ready to get into the game.
"We've spoken a lot about last year and the narrow losses. The way we weren't able to close a game down with 10 to 20 minutes to go.
"But we're not going to do that this year. We're a year older and wiser. I can't wait. That is what you do all the pre-season training for, to get out on the paddock and play the game. Hear the roar of the home crowd."
Triggs is loving the job as a professional rugby player - and says if anything it is similar to his previous job with the New Zealand Army.
"You're surrounded by good friends. Every now and again, you get put through the ringer but most of the time it is good fun.
"Everyone loves a bit of male bonding."
Triggs joined the army straight out of Hato Paora College, and trained to be a diesel mechanic.
"Both Mum and Dad were in the Air Force so I wanted to go against the grain. I was into my cars so I joined up. It was great. It was seven years of my life, and a lot of fun."
Triggs' only overseas posting was three months to the Solomon Islands, an experience he would rather forget, he said, with his unit under Australian control.
Triggs, who still holds the rank of corporal and is on leave without pay, says he misses a lot of his good mates who are still in the army.
"I owe a lot to them and I want to support them the way they have kept supporting me."
He is still fiddling with equipment but it is a camera he is trying to master, rather than axles and wheels.
Triggs has made a couple of videos for what he terms Trigger TV.
"It's a fledging little enterprise. As professional rugby players, we get to do professional development and I showed a bit of interest in media work."
The clips have included interviews with the likes of Highlanders hooker David Hall, and Triggs said he wanted to show a different side of professional rugby - "and the fact we're not going out getting drunk and getting arrested all the time".
At a glance
Hayden Triggs
Position: lock, loose forward.
Age: 26
Height/weight: 2.01m, 108kg.
Province: Transferred to Otago in October 2008, previously played 70 games for Manawatu.
Provincial debut: May 5, 2002, Manawatu vs Wanganui
Games in Super 14: 12 (11 Highlanders, 1 Hurricanes)
Super 14 debut: March 3, 2007, Hurricanes vs Stormers
